


Hide and Seek

by Ryan_magickink_Foxheart



Category: Tales from Verania - T.J. Klune
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Everyone Is Gay, Gay Sex, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-04-17 20:41:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14197323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryan_magickink_Foxheart/pseuds/Ryan_magickink_Foxheart
Summary: After meeting in their first year of university Sam and Ryan became fast friends with an obvious romantic spark between them. What'll happen to that spark when Ryan starts dating Justin, a third-year student who's decided he doesn't like Sam all that much. Will their spark survive through Ryan's relationship as well as the three of them living together?





	1. First Year

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this fandom is in desperate need of fanfic, so I thought I'd give it a try. First time writing anything like this, so feedback is more than welcome. Enjoy!

So university was pretty scary. Okay, well maybe not the university itself because I hadn’t technically started at that point, but when you were sat in the local gay bar during freshers week because your parents told you to ‘make the most of it!’, it could seem pretty scary. Oh, and being accosted by a drag queen and his mountain of a friend hadn’t helped a whole lot either. Believe it or not, this was actually how I met my two best friends in the world.

***

“Sweet molasses will the two of you leave me alone?” I said to the pair that had apparently decided to attach themselves to me. “I don’t care if it’s my ‘gay first time’ or whatever you want to call it!”

“Well, in that case, I’m SO sorry,” Gary, my new bitchy drag queen friend, retorted.

“We’ll just leave you to stand in the corner and do nothing all night then shall we? Come on Tiggy we’re leaving.” 

“Good, please do,” I said.

“Oh and Tiggy, bring this twink with you. Throw him over your shoulder if you have to,” Gary shouted back as he strutted off towards the bar.

“You’re going to do it and I’m not going to be able to do anything about it, aren’t you?” I sighed, having quickly resigned myself to my fate. I was quickly realising that Gary would almost always get his way, whether it be fighting a woman who had apparently looked like ‘two walnuts had hate sex’ for a wig he wanted, or getting me to drink heavily and dance until the sun came up.

“Yeah Sam, I am,” Tiggy replied, far more gently than I would’ve assumed for someone his size before he hoisted me up over his shoulder and carried me off in the direction Gary went.

Once we reached the bar I was hastily set down on a bar stool beside Gary who immediately thrust a drink in front of Tiggy and me.

“Now Sam, rule one of being friends with us is gin and tonic has to be your go-to drink, for obvious reasons.”

“What is it,” I questioned, “and why is it obvious?”

“Eugh. It’s gin and tonic, as in G&T, Gary and Tiggy?” Gary stared at me like I should’ve known exactly what he was talking about, despite only having met them ten minutes ago.

“Oh right, okay. Yeah, I guess that’s cool, not that I’ve ever had it before. But I guess I could try it, it should be fine. Though last time I said ‘it should be fine’ I ended up hanging by my feet from a window and almost falling and killing myself as I tried to rescue my cat since it had got stuck on our roof. In hindsight, maybe I should have been a bit more careful.” my rambling earned me a quizzical look from most of the people around me. “Sorry, I tend to talk a lot when I’m nervous or stressed or pretty much any strong emotion if I’m honest. Anyway, let’s get on with drinking this shit before I talk even more. Haha, ha. Ha.”

The drink wasn’t that bad. A similar sensation to when you pick up a glass of water and it turns out to be sparkling not plain. I expected it to be worse than it actually was. Of course, they were sitting watching my every move for signs of approval. I made sure they were aware of how I felt about it before Gary began to wave dramatically in the direction of the shirtless bartender, in what seemed to be a failing attempt to get his attention.

“Ruv, hey Ruv! Don’t ignore me bitch I know you can see me waving at you. Get your perky butt over here we need more drinks for fuck sake! Queen? Do I have to sing something by Queen to get you to come over here? I know how much you hate their songs,” he hollered at the attractive guy who was serving two people at the opposite end of the bar. Not that I’d say that out loud in fear that there would be an attempt to set me up with him, which I was so definitely not ready for. Gary was right though, he definitely had a perky butt.

“Coming Gary. So sorry to keep you waiting.”

As he turned to us with our drinks I got a full view of his muscled and heavily tattooed torso, and damn he was sexy. The dark lines swirled up along the ridges of his biceps and over his shoulders, then down over his toned chest and abs in an exotic looking swirling pattern. The patterns continued onto his upper back, but I only now realised how covered he was in them. Considering how much of his upper body had the dark lines, it was probably safe to assume they continued down under his tight jeans.

“Sam, Sam. SAM. Darling, you’re staring a little bit too much,” Gary slurred, closer to my ear than most normal people would get. How much had he drunk since Ruv walked over?

“Oh shit, um, sorry?” I said flustered.

“Don’t worry about it Sam, everyone does it the first time they see my tattoos,” Ruv said, in the raspy, yet musical and light, voice; it was really quite an interesting thing to listen to. “Maybe you’d like to see the rest of them sometime?”

He winked at me. He fucking winked.

Tiggy, thank the gods, came to my aid. “Leave Sam alone. His first time here.”

“Thank you Tiggy! Yes, you should definitely do that right now, thanks for the drinks, you can take your sexy with you when you leave,” I sputtered, surprised by the amount of obvious authority in my tone; since I was not feeling any of it.

“Whatever you say. See you soon, Sam,” he sauntered off with another gods damn wink as another group needed to be served.

By now Gary had made his way over to the dance floor, yet another drink in his hand. He seemed to be in the arms of a huge black man and was grinding up against him and kissing him like his life depended on it. Gary’s arms were draped over the man's shoulders, he still cradled his drink as he danced; the man’s hands were at Gary’s hips, though they’d started to make their way back towards the cup of his ass.

“Let’s go get him,” Tiggy mumbled as he made his way towards Gary and the man he’d attached himself to.

“Who is that he’s with? And why do we have to get him now, he seems to be having fun?” I said as I undoubtedly followed Tiggy towards the pair in the middle of the dance floor.

“Kevin, his fiancé. Need to get them before they have sex.”

“I’m getting the impression that this is far from the first time you’ve had to do this. Would they actually have sex right there? That seems a little risque. Okay, a lot risque. What’s Kevin like?”

“Yes. Yes. He good to Gary, bit forward though,” Tiggy said as we reached Gary and Kevin. “Come on Gary, Kevin, time to go. You know what happened last time.”

“But Tiggy,” Gary whined. “I want to party!”

“Gary, if I remember correctly it was sober you who told Tiggy to do this. Because of what happened last time? We can have a chocolate and raspberry muffin from our special selection if you come with me,” Kevin said, his thick Scottish accent not what you’d expect when you saw him.

“In that case, we better get going. I’ve been wanting to try that one for a while now,” Gary said provocatively, as he pressed himself into Kevin’s side.

“What’s so special about a muffin that Gary would leave straight away?” I whispered to Tiggy.

“Tell you later,” Tiggy whispered back.

***

We left. Tiggy forgot to tell me what muffins from their ‘special selection’ were, it turned out they meant sex with Gary and Kevin, which I learnt the hard way the first time I visited their actual bakery. Let’s just say, for a 6’8 black Scottish man Kevin could be extremely sexual and I would never be able to look at a poppy-seed muffin the same way ever again. They’re in a somewhat open relationship, though I’m not even sure if that’s right. It worked for them and they were both alright sexually propositioning me every five minutes, so I guess it’s alright. For them. Not for me. The amount of offers I received from both of them for a threesome is unbelievable.

So that’s how I met my two best friends in the world. And Kevin, Gary’s sexually aggressive finacé. And Ruv, the attractive bartender who, like most people I knew, wanted to have sex with me.

The second ‘make the most of it!’ moment I had was when it came to joining societies. I’d made the mistake of telling them that my university had loads of societies available, so I inevitably had to join at least one. Gary had insisted that I join the LGBT society, that’s where he’d met Kevin when they’d been at university. I think him and Mama, his drag mother, expected me to meet ‘the one’ there. Who knows if they were right or not.

***

I walked into the room and stopped. In front of me, surrounded by a mass of people who fell over each other to get his attention was probably the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. His biceps and chest bulged through his already too tight red t-shirt. His white jeans were following suit, looking far too tight against his muscular thighs. I was so grateful to the girl who tried to speak to him and made him turn away from me so I could stare at his ass. Probably the best I’ve ever seen, a perfectly curved and juicy bubble butt; sweet molasses I wanted to bury my face in there and rim it for days.

He finished up his conversation with the girl who was trying to climb inside his jeans with him, looked around the room and began to head towards me.

“Hey, I’m Ryan. What’s your name?”

“Uuhhhhhhhmmm,” now he was up close I could get a better look at his delicious face. He had a perfectly chiseled jaw, covered in a few days worth of short stubble. His emerald green eyes and flawless skin complimented his blond hair perfectly. With sides that were shorter than his right-parted fringe. “I’m, oh shit; name Sam, tell the gorgeous man your name.”

“You okay there Sam?” Ryan said with a mix of concern and amusement.

Oh gods his voice was like caramel. Softer and quieter than I expected but beautiful all the same. I had to keep it together, I could jerk off with the dildo my lesbian aunts gave me later for gods sake.

“Oh gods, um, yeah I’m alright I think. How did you—oh right yeah, I said it to myself didn’t I. Who was that girl who looked like she was trying to climb into your jeans?” I said to Ryan, once I’d got over my flustering.

“I think she said her name was Tina? Something like that anyway. I was more focused on getting her to leave me alone than remembering her name,” Ryan reached up to scratch the back of his head; not-so-subtly flexing like an asshole. “I’d stay away from her if that’s at all possible.”

“I don’t think that going to be possible by the look of it…” I said as I pointed over his shoulder in the direction of the unfortunate people Tina was deciding to latch onto in place of Ryan.

Ryan took my hand all of a sudden and began to pull me off towards a slowly amassing group.  _ Okay Sam, stay calm. He probably does it to everyone, or did it by accident and meant to grab your arm. It’s fine, remember to breathe.  _ “Looks like we better make our way over, Justin seems he’s about ready to give us the rundown.”

“What? Okay. Wait, who’s Justin?”

“Society president. He said he was going to give a bit of an intro talk when I spoke to him earlier, it being the first meeting and all.”

“Oh okay, kinda feel like I should have guessed that.”

I kept glancing down at our joined hands. Ryan still hadn’t let go, despite us having stopped near the middle of the gathered group. Should I ask him to let go? I feel like I should for his sake. Wouldn’t want people getting the wrong idea.

I leant over and whispered, “You realise you haven’t let go of my hand yet don’t you?”

“Do you want me to let go?”

“Umm,”—now that I wasn’t expecting—”I don’t think so?”

“You don’t sound too sure.”

Ah fuck it, may as well enjoy it if he’s okay with it. “No, I don’t want you to let go.”

“Good, that’s settled then.”

This was a very odd situation. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be standing at an LGBT society meeting, holding hands with the most attractive guy in the universe and listening to our society president, who I guessed was doing politics or something by the commanding aura he had, give a welcome speech, there’s no way I’d have believed you. No way in hell. But there I was, I guess that’s life for you.

Once his speech was done, Ryan pulled me over to Justin. I apparently ‘have to meet him, he’s the society president Sam!’

“Ah hello again Ryan, do think my speech went alright? It’s not the usual kind of speech I’m used to giving,” Justin said “And you brought a”—he glanced down at our hands—”friend with you.”

Ryan let go of my hand sheepishly, glancing at me as what I could only assume was some sort of apology. “Yeah um, Justin, this is Sam. It was great, made a really good introduction for us newbies.”

“That’s good, thank you for the reassurance. Right, I need to be off now, I expect we’ll be seeing each other at the gym sometime. I very much doubt I’ll be seeing your friend all that much,” Justin left after he gathered up his bags, that left Ryan and me alone at the edge of the room with the rest of the group dispersed in small groups around the room.

“Wow, rude,” I said because it was true. He was a bit of a bitch.

“I wouldn’t say th—”

“I would. But don’t worry Ryan, I will make him like me, eventually. We’ll be best friends, you’ll see.”

“RYAN, there you are! I wondered where you’d escaped to,” this must be Tina. Great. I hate her so much already. So much.

“Oh no,” Ryan said quietly before Tina had reached us. “Hey Tina, what did you think of Justin’s speech?” I was very glad to hear his voice filled with that fake enthusiasm people often use when they see someone they’re forced to tolerate.

“It was so good! He was so powerful and command—” she squinted at me. “It’s you,” she said with utter disdain.

Her reaction definitely puzzled me, as far as I was aware I hadn’t done anything to make her dislike me. I couldn’t let her gain the upper hand though, as the first battle could set the tone for the entire war I could sense on the horizon. I had to stay calm, couldn’t let her get to me. “Yup, you’d be correct there. It is indeed me.”

“I can’t believe you’d force my precious Ryan to hold hands with you through the whole speech!”

“Actually—” Ryan began, quickly being cut off as Tina launched back into her unprovoked verbal attack.

“I’m so sorry Ryan, that must have been quite an ordeal you had to go through, holding this thing’s hand for such a long period of time. Especially when it was obvious all you wanted to do was get back to be alone Justin after his speech, but a certain someone wouldn’t leave you with the man you quite clearly have intense feelings for. We should get you checked for diseases in case you’ve caught something.” she glared daggers at me the whole time she spoke, even though most of what was said was directed towards Ryan. I gave her that, she was very tenacious with her apparent hatred of me.

“I think we’re going to go now. See you around Tina,” Ryan said, as he hastily dragged me away from Tina before she tried a less verbal assault on me to get me away from Ryan.

“Let’s hope we never have to see her again,” I said as soon as we were out of earshot.

He laughed, oh did he laugh. It, as I expected by now, was perfect just like the rest of him was. I smiled a small smile to myself before I couldn’t help but join him in his laughter at the nightmare of Miss Tina DeSilva.

***

So that was Ryan, beautiful Ryan. We became close friends over the course of our first year together, and maybe I wished we were closer than friends, but that was something I kept hidden away all to myself. For about two hours, until I spilled everything to Gary, Tiggy, and Kevin. Then again to Mama and Ruv at the bar.

The rest of the year was fairly uneventful. Well, as uneventful as it can be with the people I seem to associate myself with. Lectures were going well; I was having a man named Morgan for most of the Maths half of my course. I liked him, he was nice and didn’t rush through the material too quickly. Philosophy, however, was very different. I was with a man named Randall who was an excellent teacher, but was a dick and tended to push a little too hard sometimes. I’d been coping with everything pretty well I would say.

There was one more minor thing that happened towards the end of the year. Not all that important, doesn’t make me feel anything at all obviously. That thing would be the story of my living situation for the second, and now into the third year of my degree.

***

“Hey Sam,” Ryan said as he sat down next to me at my table in the library. “Have you thought about where you’re going to live next year?”

I kept my eyes on my laptop and said, “Not really, I was thinking of asking you if you wanted to find a place together. I would ask Gary, but I feel like living with him and Kevin would result in more sexual advances than I could mentally handle.” I glanced up at him, “I’ve got to get this free will essay done for philosophy tomorrow or Randall will murder me. Still listening though.”

“Well, I won’t distract you for too long,” he said fondly. “I was wondering if you wanted to live with me.”

“Yeah, that sound—”

“And Justin.”

“You’re living with Justin?!” I whisper-shouted at him.

“Yeah, it’s his last year, so he’s moving out of his student house and getting a place of his own next year; asked if I wanted to join him.”

“I didn’t think you two knew each other that well?” I’d stopped working on my essay by now, I couldn’t focus on that at the moment.

“Well, there is one other reason I’m living with him…”

I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for further explanation.

“We’re kind of dating,” he said with the same sheepish look he had the first day we’d met plastered on his face.

***

So yeah, there’s that. Which is still happening. Fuck my life.


	2. Pining for Soldier Boy

As per usual on a Sunday morning, Gary, Tiggy and I sat in my living room. We were re-watching the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race series 10 so Gary could take notes. We did this every year; watched it through once to enjoy it, then again so Gary could make notes on the challenges, what he would have done, and what comments the judges gave. It started out as a bit of fun, but over time he’d got more serious about it and often made Tiggy and me take notes too. 

“Sam, Tiggy I don’t think I’ve told you yet, but I’ll be entering again this year”—he told us at least three times a day—“so you better be picky as fuck with these bitches outfits, I have to prepare so I can win for fuck’s sake.” 

Gary flicked his white-blond hair out of his face as he turned back towards the flat screen TV on the wall. His hair had red streaks this week, but he changed it more often than Kevin propositioned me for sex, which was a lot. You’d think it’d kill his hair, but he had a top secret hair and skincare routine that not even Kevin knew all of. Other than hair, he was slim and toned, you could really see why Kevin, and pretty much everyone else, was so enamoured with him.

“Yes Gary,” Tiggy and I said.

“Especially you Sam. All three of us know you’re way more lenient than Tiggy is.”

“Tiggy good at notes for Gary,” Tiggy said proudly.

Tiggy was so adorable when he smiled. He’s a fairly big guy, but when he smiled he looked like a puppy you’d just given a treat. He’s the perfect person to cuddle, well built but softly so. 

“Yes darling you most definitely are,” Gary said back, which made Tiggy beam. “Now let’s start this before you-know-who wakes up and we lose Sam to his ugly drooling.”

“I do not—”

“Yes, you do. Now shut your face,” Gary commanded.

So we sat in silence as we always did on our second run. We were all still horrified by the dress made of sponges, Gary would definitely never be doing that one, that’s for sure. 

As we came to the lip sync at the end of the episode, we heard the shower shut off and footsteps approach from the bathroom. I glanced over my shoulder to greet whichever of my roommates had got up first this morning.

Holy balls it was Ryan. Dripping wet with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Glorious abs on display which I so desperately wanted to lick. He had his adorable I’ve-just-woken-up look which made me melt.

As Ryan walked into our open-plan kitchen he said, “Morning Sam,” with a slight grin on his face. 

“And we’ve lost him,” Gary paused the episode and turned towards the kitchen, “thanks a bunch Ryan, you know how Sam gets around bare muscled torsos. Especially yours,” he said pointedly.

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about Gary,” Ryan’s grin was growing bigger by the second, “You guys want breakfast? I’m making pancakes.”

“Ryan, you don’t need to ask that question,” I finally snapped out of my trance at the mention of Ryan’s cooking. It was to die for.

“Hahaha, you’re right there Sam.”

Ryan turned back towards the kitchen to make our pancakes while we finished watching the end of the episode. I was too preoccupied staring at Ryan’s tapered back as he cooked our breakfast.

“Sam.”

“Huh, what?”

“First, you’re staring. Second, pancakes are ready,” Justin said. His whole body was giving off his own special blend of boredom and annoyance he saved especially for me.

“Oh, sorry,” I turned back towards the kitchen, “Pancakes!”

So we sat down together, something we only did on the occasion Ryan cooked for us. Justin and I sat on either side of Ryan, with Gary next to me and Tiggy between Gary and Justin at our round dining table.

“What do you guys think about me growing a beard?” Ryan said as I proceeded to choke on my food. Holy balls Ryan with a beard was something I needed to see.

“Well, Sam’s made his opinion clear…” Gary said, rolling his eyes at me.

Ryan’s food was as amazing as expected, even though I was choking on it. There was something else of Ryan’s that I’d much rather be choking on, but that was beside the point. He’d become an amazing cook over the past couple of years, no doubt trying to impress Justin. Tina thought they looked perfect together. Tina was also an idiot. If I ignored my desire for Ryan I could see what she meant sometimes, not that I’d ever tell her that. Like just then, seeing them sat there like the perfect couple as they chatted whilst they ate breakfast. Justin kissed his cheek casually before he got up to leave for an early morning meeting. 

I felt bad, I really did. I had no right to want him as much as I did when he was so content and in love with Justin. But I still fucking wanted him despite all that. Some friend I was being.

“Bye Ryan, I love you,” Justin smirked on his way out the door.

“What? Oh, um yeah, have a good day,” Ryan said, stumbling over his words.

Great, just fucking great.

***

Later that evening I sat in the same bar where I first met Gary and Tiggy, it’d become somewhat of a regular spot for me. We usually came together, but Gary was off with Kevin, and Tiggy was working security outside for the next couple of weeks. One of the usual guys had an unfortunate fisting accident and needed stitches, so Tiggy said he’d cover for him while he was recovering.

“Sam? You’re not usually here on a Sunday evening. Don’t you have a lecture in the morning? Where’re Gary and Tiggy?” Mama purred, a quizzical expression on her face.

“Yeah, I do. Tiggy’s working security. Gary’s off with Kevin preparing for their three-day orgy party, didn’t you get your invite?”

“Oh yes, that. I didn’t realise they took that long to prepare. They’ve always looked effortless.”

“Yeah, you know Gary. Everything has to be flawless,” I finished my drink and signalled over to Ruv for another.

“It does,” she said before pulling me to a standing position. “How’ve you been? The back tattoo I gave you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s finished up great now it’s fully healed. You should have seen Gary’s face the first time I asked him to help me put the cream on it; it was priceless.”

“If you’d like any more done, come find me.”

“The one is just fine with me Mama. I couldn’t go through that again.”

Ruv came over and put my drink on the bar in front of me. Thankfully he didn’t wait around to join our conversation, I didn’t need more people there when I knew where Mama would steer our little catch-up session next. She, and many others, had the impression that I had feelings for Ryan. Which was obviously ridiculous and fake.

“And how’re you faring with your other predicament?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sam,” she said with a glare. She was tired of my bullshit, I could tell. She got fucking scary when she wanted to be. I wouldn’t be surprised if she skinned me and used my body parts to make a new outfit for her next performance. She was like that quite often when she was around me. 

“Ugh fine,” I groaned, ”I don’t want you to skin me then use that to make a new jacket. I’ll talk.”

“I don’t think even the best psychologists could figure out your head,” she smiled at me fondly, “So, how is he?”

“Gorgeous. He walked in straight after a shower this morning.”

“Oh dear, how unfortunate,” she said, her sarcasm was obvious.

“Thank you! I knew you’d understand.”

“And you? How’s your heart coping?”

“I’m”—I sighed—“I’m not good Mama. Seeing him with Justin, it hurts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s happy, it’s just, it’s hard for me to watch sometimes. I’ve thought maybe moving out would make it easier, but I couldn’t do that.”

“So what sent you here? Something must have happened today to make you come here alone?” I should have guessed she wouldn’t let me leave it at that. 

“Justin saying ‘I love you’ to him as he left this morning.”

“And that makes you feel...?” Mama said.

“Sad and pissed-off and generally kind of shitty.”

“Because…?” she said, pushing me to open up further.

“I don’t fucking know!” I said angrily, “I guess I want to be the one to make him feel like that, I want him to look at me as if I’m his whole world. But he doesn’t and he never will because he’s with Mr gods-damn perfect Justin,” I sighed, a sullen look plastered across my face.

“You really care about him, don’t you Sam?”

“Yeah, I do. But he doesn’t feel the same way and there’s nothing I can do but accept that.”

“You have no idea do you?” she looked at me, pity on her face, “I guess you’ll find out, sooner or later.”

“Find out what?”

“If I could tell you I would Sam, but it’s not my place.”

“Whatever you say Mama. Thanks for listening,” I finished my last drink and stood, dizzy and off-balance, “before you say it, yes, I’ll get Tiggy to take me home.”

“Bye Sam. You look after yourself or I might end up with a nice new jacket for Gary’s party.”

“Don’t worry Mama, like I said, Tiggy’ll take me home.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about Sam,” she said as she disappeared back off into the mass of bodies, dancing and laughing as she went.

***

The next few days went by uneventfully, I had lectures and coursework to keep my mind from wandering back to Sunday and the conversation I had with Mama at the bar. That’s not something I wanted to think about. But the short period of trying my hardest to not think about Ryan had to end at some point. That point was movie night.

Wednesday night was usually movie night for the five of us. Gary, Tiggy, and Kevin joined Ryan and me at our place, occasionally Justin too when he wasn’t working. So it was just my luck when I realised no one else would join us as we were about to start watching ‘Devil Wears Prada’. I would be alone with Ryan for the entire evening. 

Ryan turned to me. “No one else joining us?” he whispered.

“Nah, orgy party started today so we won’t be seeing Gary or Kevin for a few days. Tiggy’s still working security,” I whispered back, “Justin with his dad I’m assuming?”

“Yeah, yet another political career planning meeting.”

“His dad loves to push his career forward doesn’t he? Anyway, let’s get this started shall we?”

“Yes! I kinda glad it’s just us today. Can’t let the others find out how much I love this type of film.” 

“Right, can’t have your precious image ruined by people knowing you like romcoms,” I said, as I rolled my eyes. 

A pillow hit me in the face. I looked over at Ryan who was smirking at me. Asshole.

“You’re a dick, you know that right?”

“Yeah, I do,” his smile grew wider. He reached for the remote to finally start the film, “Come on, let’s get to watching.”

At last.

The movie was brilliant, gods I need to watch it more. Meryl Streep can do no wrong. But I got rather distracted halfway through. 

Ryan rested his arms on the back of the sofa, which meant his bicep was alarmingly close to my face. Fuck. It took all the effort I had to keep my eyes on the TV for the rest of the film.

“So you want to watch something else or...?” I said to him once the film had ended.

“No. Can we just talk? I feel like we haven’t done that in a long time.”

“Yeah, we can talk. Oh, how’s the whole ‘I’m in a relationship with an up-and-coming political figure’ thing going?”

“I don’t mind it, it’s kinda fun sometimes being in the public eye,” he shrugged, “Though there hasn’t been a lot of privacy recently, people want to know everything they can about me, with Justin being primed to take his father’s place, eventually.”

“By ‘fun’ I’m assuming you’re talking about your cult-like fan following Tina has somehow gained control of?”

“I wouldn’t say cult-like, it’s a little odd, but still charming. Their latest obsession is how I joined the army when I was 18 after leaving school. I was there for four years before I left.”

“I’m aware,” I was an active member of the Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook fan-club. Obviously, I used a fake account, couldn’t have anyone knowing about my obsession with him; ‘Mervin Wild’ supplied a lot of hard to get information for the community.

“You are?”

“Umm”—ah shit—“they’re hard to miss on Twitter.” That was close. 

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Right, yeah.” 

“What was the army like? You don’t talk about it all that much,” I needed him to tell me as much as he could, for scientific purposes. It definitely wasn’t for jerking off, definitely not.

“It was intense. Stressful, but such a good experience. Your daily routine is really controlled, but you get evenings as weekends off while you’re not deployed. You stay in bunks with a load of other people which was a lot of fun sometimes. They push you to your breaking point, mentally and physically, but they have to or else you won’t be ready for deployment and you’ll crack under the pressure. Apart from that, it’s kind of like any other job I guess.”

He told me about his commanding officer Pete, who’d pretended to be a hardass but was actually a massive softie, and the party they’d had for him when he retired in Ryan’s third year. He told me about the training exercises they’d had where they were left in the middle of nowhere and had to fend for themselves for days. He spoke rather fondly of the friends he’d made there, the pranks they’d pulled, and how they’d promised to see each other again when they’d all left.

“Sounds like you met great people there,” I said to him with a small smile.

“Yeah, I really did,” he smiled back at me, “but I’m glad I left. I’ve met great people here too, one in particular.”

There it was, the reminder I didn’t need after such a nice moment together.

“You care about Justin a lot don’t you?” every time we got close something would always happen to remind me I can never be as close to him as Justin. 

“Yes Sam, Justin’s the one I’m talking about,” his sarcasm going unnoticed by me. 

We sat in silence for a few more moments before I got up to head to bed, I wished Ryan goodnight on my way. I needed to get to sleep because Randall gets shitty with you if you miss his lectures; in two years I’ve seen many of my friends crumble to his wrath. That was what I told myself was the reason. Nothing to do with the way that conversation had ended, absolutely not.

“Tina’s having a party this Friday and Justin and I are the ‘guests of honour’ or something, but I’d really like it if you were there as well?”

I already knew about this party, obviously. I wasn’t planning on going, even though I wanted to. It would mean Tina finding out who Mervin was which I couldn’t have under any circumstances. He was supposedly busy on another reconnaissance mission to find out more about Ryan that night. Now Ryan had invited me, so Tina had to let me in. She was physically incapable of saying no to Ryan, despite how much she may dislike me for living with her favourite couple.

“Yeah, I’ll be there. Sleep well Ryan,” I called back over my shoulder as I walked down the hall to my room. 


	3. House Party From Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long for me to update! I've had exams and then actually writing this chapter was like pulling teeth. But it's done now and I'm happy with it (finally). Enjoy!
> 
> ps. I've edited chapters 1 and 2 as well, you may want to re-read them?

“Ryan!” Tina said with excitement the second we walked through the door, “I’m so grateful you could make it to our little gathering for the two of you,” she frowned, “Wait, where’s Justin?”

“This is hardly little,” I scoffed. If you’d call a literal mansion full of people little then sure, it was a little gathering. 

“Sam? How unpleasant to see you. I assume you’re here by mistake? You must be lost, the mental hospital is the next street over.”

“I hope your operation goes well next week, having your whole brain removed must be difficult. It surprised me to find out you had one in the first place. You don’t have to worry though, it’s not possible for you to get any more stupid. You might even get smarter once they’ve removed that tumour.”

“Oh Sam, I do love your new haircut. Brings out your sunken eyes and how hollow your cheeks are. Are you anorexic or just trying to save money for Halloween by going as a dead person? If you are then all the dirt and maggots in your hair are really helping.”

“You know Tina, I’m surprised you managed to organise this considering you’re as useless as a marzipan dildo and so dense light bends around you. Anyway, I’d love to stay and chat but I’d rather get the plague.”

“Justin’s been held up at work, he’ll be here as soon as he can,” Ryan rolled his eyes at our usual antics before he followed me towards the kitchen where we got drinks. If I was going to survive that party I needed alcohol.

“Enjoy the food Sam,” Tina called after us.

***

Of course, Tina had made sure I was allergic to absolutely everything there was to eat. She could go to hell. That would be too cruel to the people already there though, even for hell. I wouldn’t wish her on anyone.

I stared intently at the hoard of bottles and tried fruitlessly to decide what I wanted to drink. Ryan was dragged off by Tina soon after we got to the kitchen. She’d told him to start with beer so he could stay sober enough to greet people, which was part of his duty as one of the ‘guests of honour’, according to Tina. Anyway, back to the drinks.

There was beer, the same as Ryan, but beer was gross and it would’ve meant doing what Tina said. So that was an instant no. If Gary was there he’d have shouted ‘SHOTS’ before he dragged me off to get stupidly drunk; not the best idea. I wanted to get drunk, but not ‘I need my stomach pumped’ drunk. Gary was like that, he could do shots all night and barely get drunk. Probably why he’s with Kevin, the only other person I know that can keep up with him. Hanging out with them was a nightmare sometimes.

“Um, hi?” someone said from behind me. 

I didn’t scream. Nope. Not at all.

“Fucking hell, don’t do that,” I said as I turned to face whoever decided it would be a good idea to sneak up on me.

“Oh god! I’m sorry. You were talking to yourself, probably why you didn’t hear me coming. Something about how gross Tina is for her stomach hanging out?” the nameless man replied.

For someone who’d just scared me half to death, he was adorable. He also had brilliant ears; they stuck out the side of his face like wings. “Your ears stick out so much.”

“Thanks, I think?”

“You’re welcome,” he was so cute when he was nervous, “Wait, this is a party for Ryan and Justin, what’s someone like you doing here?” Mervin would remember someone with ears as brilliant as his. He didn’t seem like the type of person to be a member of the Rystin fan-club at all. 

He turned his eyes away from mine, a nervous smile on his face, “I’m not exactly here to meet them.”

“What?”

“I’ve seen you around campus and I think you’re attractive and you live with Justin and Ryan so I kind of assumed you’d be here…”

“You think I’m attractive?” he was there to meet me?

“Yes?” I raised my eyebrow at him, “Yes, I do.” 

Did that count as wanting to fuck me? I’d have to ask Gary.

“So, what do you think you’re going to drink?” he asked.

“Eh, I think I’m just going to have vodka and coke,” I said as I poured my drink.

“I’ll have the same then,” he gave me a slightly nervous smile before he came over to stand beside me whilst I made him his.

It was at that point I decided I should enjoy myself and have fun with Todd. I’d got nowhere with Ryan and wasn’t going to in the next millennia. Why shouldn’t I have fun at a party with a guy who was interested? “I heard there were plans for a game of truth or dare in the garden, let’s go join them,” I said as I pulled Todd off towards the back of the house.

***

After a girl ate a bar of soap and one of Ryan’s coursemates had half his hair shaved off I had begun to wonder what I’d got myself into. I expected it to be more like the times I’d played before, most people going for truths with only occasional dares, but clearly that wasn’t the case. The other odd thing was how, in an effort to get more drunk, they’d got a jug and filled it with anything they could find that was safe to drink. It was slowly passed around and you had to take a shot from it when it got to you. I’d be sure to tell Gary about that one.

“Tina, truth or dare?” a girl, the one who’d eaten soap I was fairly sure, said.

“Dare.”

The soap girl had an evil smile on her face, “Go hug Sam.”

“No w—”

“Bitch you made me eat soap, you can’t say no,” she said as she glared at Tina.

“Fine, but only if I get to dare Sam afterwards,” she huffed.

“Do I get a say in this?” I obviously didn’t want to touch her if I could help it.

“Nope,” soap girl said.

“Fucking great,” I said. I didn’t have the option of backing out so I had to make sure she had the worst experience possible, especially if she had free reign to dare me afterwards. The bitch would suffer.

She walked towards me and hugged me. She tried to pull away after a couple of seconds, but I didn’t let her go. After a couple of minutes I decided it’d been long enough, even if I was trying to torture her I could only handle so much myself.

She reeled away from me once the hug was finished and cried, “Someone get me some disinfectant now!”

One of the girls jumped up and ran into the house to get Tina what she needed to sterilise her arms. I was kind of surprised she didn’t set her arms on fire or chop them off, I’d definitely considered doing that.

Once Tina had thoroughly scrubbed pretty much her entire body with disinfectant wipes she turned to me with a look that could only be described as murderous rage.

“Sam.”

“Yes Tina?”

“Go kiss the person you’re most interested in romantically.”

Oh fuck her.

“The person you have the most feelings for, you could say.”

Fuck her so much.

“Go on”—her eyes flicked over to Ryan—“ Go kiss him.”

How did she know about that?

“What’re you waiting for? Just do it Sam.”

No way was I going to admit how I felt. I couldn’t give her that kind of power, or the satisfaction of being right.

“Fuck it,” I knew what I had to do. I stood up, walked towards him, grabbed his face, and pulled him into the most heartfelt kiss I was able to muster.

“Wow,” he said once I pulled away, “You could have warned me.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I, um, enjoyed it. Just would’ve been nice to know it was coming.”

I smiled at him, “I’ll make sure I warn you next time then.”

“There’s going to be a next time?”

“Yes Todd, there’s going to be a next time.”

“Okay then,” Todd said as he smiled back at me.

I glanced over at Ryan as I stumbled back to my seat, he was glaring at Todd before he noticed me and turned away, a pout on his face.

After I’d returned to where I was sat, the kiss with Todd burnt into my mind, the guy with half his hair missing said him and the rest of the guys from his course wanted to dare Ryan.

“Do your worst,” Ryan said to them.

There were a lot of whispers and quiet laughter before they turned and grinned at Ryan, “You’ve got to run down to the end of the road and back.”

“That it?” Ryan said puzzled.

“Naked.”

He looked over at me with a smirk, “I guess I’ve got to strip then, don’t I?”

He started to strip, slowly, like a fucking asshole. It probably only took a couple of minutes, but to me, it felt like years.

He started with his t-shirt. He grabbed the collar behind his neck and began to pull it up and over his head.  As it rose up I was given a front-row-seat view to his abs, the dense dirty-blond hair that danced through the ridges between each muscle. My eyes drifted upwards, following the trail of hair as it blossomed out over his well-sculpted pectoral muscles.

Gods, how I wanted to bury my face in his chest and suck on his nipples.

He dropped his t-shirt on the ground and quickly slipped off his shoes and socks before moving on to unbuckling his belt. He pushed his jeans down over his beefy thighs, his bright green briefs were exposed in the process, and dropped them alongside his t-shirt once they were off. That left him in just his underwear, more naked that I’d ever seen him.

“Fuucckkkk,” I said.

Ryan turned to look at me, a playful look in his eyes, “Like what you see Sam?”

“Nope. Definitely”—I gulped—”not delicious.”

He walked towards me and said, “Oh really?”

He got close. Really close. His crotch was about a foot away from my face when he began to flex and slowly roll his hips in my direction. He was showing off in an effort to prove me wrong; that wasn’t going to happen.

“Really,” It took every ounce of self-control my drunk self had left not to reach up and start touching him right there.

He turned his body to face the rest of the group and flexed again as he continued the roll of his hips; his ass thrust towards me like his life depended on it. He’d clearly turned too quickly for his drunk brain to handle as he began to sway before he fell towards me. My only thought was to make sure I didn’t get crushed, so I stuck my hands out to try and break his fall. Luckily I managed to stop myself from being crushed by Ryan’s 200 lbs frame, but once the I-was-almost crushed-to-death shock wore off I realised where my hands were. On his ass. My hands were on Ryan’s ass.

“Sweet molasses,” I groaned. My hands weren’t there for long though, as soon as Ryan regained his balance I reluctantly removed them.

He turned his head to face me as he ran his hands down his side of his body towards his perfectly sculpted ass. All around us drunk people cheered and called for it to be their turn next. That was all drowned out by the lust-filled, teasing look he gave me as his thumbs dipped below the waistband of his briefs and pulled them down and off in one swift motion.

Then he turned, dropped his underwear in my lap, winked, and ran out into the road butt naked.

***

I shoved the underwear into the back pocket of my jeans and joined the rest of the group out on the road to watch Ryan. When I got out there they were laughing as a car pulled over next to where Ryan had sat himself on the ground. An older couple, who looked to be in their 90’s, climbed out of the front seats and slowly made their way towards to him. When the man started shouting at him I ran over, he clearly needed to be rescued.

“—pletely disgraceful,” I heard as I got closer.

“I don’t know dear, I think it’s okay if someone of his”—her eyes ran up and down his body—”stature wants to run around with nothing on.”

“Oh stop it. Go and get back in the car.”

“If you say so,” she gave him a look before she turned walked off towards their car.

He glared at me when I reached Ryan’s side, “I assume he’s your friend? How could you let him run around with nothing on in a respectable neighbourhood like this?”

“I have his underwear,” I squeaked up at the man.

He shook his head and turned back to join his wife and muttered, “The youth of today abhor me.”

“Well, you abhor us too, whatever that means” I called after him.

“Hey Sam,” Ryan waved from his place on the floor.

I reached my hand out so he could pull himself up, “Come on, let’s get you back to the house.”

Once he was up I put his arm around my shoulder, mine around his waist and helped him make our way slowly back to the house.

“Sorry Sam,” Ryan muttered.

I sighed, “It’s okay Ryan, don’t worry about it.”

We arrived back at the door to Tina’s house, only to see a man I was all too familiar with stood in the door looking unbelievably pissed off.

“Sam, do you want to explain to me why I’ve turned up at this party to see my boyfriend naked and with your arm around his waist?”

Of course, that’s the exact moment Justin had to arrive at the gods damn party.


	4. Coffee & Mimosa's

“And that’s when the 90-year-old guy took his feet out of my ass so Kevin could suck on his toes. It’s a shame he and his wife had to leave early.”  
  
“Gary, what part of ‘I don’t want you to tell me anything about the orgy party’ do you not understand?”   
  
To say it grossed me out would be a massive understatement. Gary could get a little carried away and forget how mentally scarring his orgy tales could be to anyone who has the sense not to go to them.  
  
It was Saturday morning, the day after the house party and the end of Gary and Kevin’s three-day fuck-fest. Gary had insisted that the three of us go to brunch whilst Kevin watched the bakery so we could ‘have a catch-up, god Sam’. He wanted to hear about the party and talk my ear off about the orgy basically.   
  
“Nonsense, Sam. Now have I told you about when Kevin and Mama sucked glitter and peanut butter out of my—” I shoved my fingers in my ears and sung Toxic by Britney Spears in the hope I wouldn’t have to listen to the end of another one of his stories.   
  
Tiggy reached over to Gary and took a piece of his blue wavy braid between his fingers and said, “Nice wig. It new?”  
  
Thank gods Tiggy knew exactly when to distract Gary, I could kiss him for all the years of therapy he’d saved me.  
  
“Thank you for noticing Tiggy, unlike some people.” He gave me a sarcastic smile. “It was a gift from Kevin for our 10-year anniversary.”  
  
“I thought you’d been together 12 years?” I said.   
  
“We have, it was for our 10 years of orgy parties together. We don’t celebrate how long we’ve been together, duh.”  
  
“I don’t even want to know why you do that,” calling them a normal couple would be like saying Tina was a saint. To this day I still don’t know how old either of them is.  
  
“So”—Gary sipped his mimosa—“tell me everything.”  
  
“About what?” I feigned ignorance.  
  
“The party.”   
  
“Oh, that.”  
  
“Yes, that.” I could practically hear him rolling his eyes at me.  
  
“Eugh fine,” I groaned.  
  
So I told them about everything that went down. Gary laughed when I told them about my insult exchange with Tina, then raised an eyebrow at me when I told him about meeting Todd. They both looked horrified when I told them about having to hug Tina. Gary said I should probably get checked for Ebola just in case. He was right, I’d probably caught some kind of new alien disease. I made a mental note to get an appointment with my doctor.   
  
“Then I kissed Todd.”  
  
“YOU DID WHAT,” Gary said after he spat his drink all over me.  
  
“Well yeah, Tina said I had to kiss the person I was most romantically attracted to, so I kissed Todd obviously.”  
  
“Sam, you really expect me, the person you’ve vented literally all your feelings ever to, to believe you’re more romantically attracted to Todd than Ryan? If that ain’t the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever seen,” he rolled his eyes at me like the bitch he was.   
  
“Gary’s right Sam, denial’s not just a river in Egypt,” Tiggy said, followed by a sassy finger snap.  
  
Gary smiled at Tiggy. “I taught him that.”  
  
“You two are the worst,” I huffed.  
  
They stared at me and said, “Sam.”  
  
“Fine! You win, I’ll talk,” I grumbled. “I wanted to kiss Ryan, and if he wasn’t with Justin, I would have; I’m not a home-wrecker. Also, I couldn’t let Tina have that kind of power over me, not a fucking chance she would take that moment from me. Plus, it’s not like I don’t like Todd, he has amazing ears.”  
  
“His ears? Sam you know I don’t care about his ears, you should be telling me what his butt looks like.”  
  
Of course Gary wanted to know about his butt. “His butt is nice, Gary. Not as nice as Ryan’s, but nice.”  
  
“No one’s butt is as nice as Ryan’s. Speaking of him, how was he feeling after you kissed Todd?” Gary said  
  
“He seemed pissed off when I looked at him on the way back to my chair. What does that have to do with the kiss?”  
  
“Oh, something pissed him off? Right at that exact moment, he looked pissed? I wonder why that could be. Any ideas Sam?” Gary said with an eyebrow raised.  
  
“How should I know? Probably annoyed Justin wasn’t there or something.”  
  
Gary turned his head to the sky and clasped his hands together, “Dear Lord, I know I’m about as far from religious as you can get, but at this moment I’m starting to believe there must be some kind of higher power, for that’s the only explanation as to why I’ve been forced to bear the burden of someone as mind-numbingly oblivious as Sam. If you would care to strike him down with your holy power at this moment so I don’t have to suffer this torture any longer I would be eternally grateful. Ah, men.”  
  
“Isn’t it amen?” I said.  
  
“Oh, sweet child no. If that twink was real you can bet yo’ ass he was gay and went around sighing at hot guys. Do you know how dramatic they say he was? He travelled around with twelve men, you cannot tell me they weren’t all fucking each other.”  
  
“Huh,” he had a point for once.  
  
“I told you, Gary is always right. Anyway, stop changing the subject, Sam. What happened after the kiss?” Gary said.  
  
“Ryan took all his clothes off, and I grabbed his ass.”  
  
Gary spat his drink over me. Again. Maybe I should’ve been more careful when I said that.  
  
Gary made me give them every detail of what was apparently a striptease, whilst he took notes on his phone. I blushed furiously and wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed or turned on as I recalled Ryan’s fall onto my hands. Gary cackled at my helplessness, like usual. I told them how stunned I was when Ryan ran out into the road, and how we all followed him so we could stare at his naked ass more.  
  
“Then?” Tiggy asked.  
  
“He got accosted by a moody old guy and his wife, who I’m fairly sure wanted to have sex with Ryan.”  
  
Gary had a slightly puzzled look on his face, “How old were these two?”  
  
“They were fucking ancient, probably in their 90’s?”  
  
“Huh, how about that,” Gary said.  
  
“Once they’d left, I helped Ryan up and helped him walk back to the house.”  
  
“Okay, Sam’s story’s done now, back to me,” Gary shifted back in his seat  
  
“Justin was at the door when we got there.”  
  
He “Ooo, drama. Back to Sam.”  
  
“So basically…”

***

“Sam, do you want to explain to me why I’ve turned up at this party to see my boyfriend naked and with your arm around his waist?”  
  
Justin stood leaning against the frame of Tina’s front with his arms folded.   
  
“Eep!” I squeaked.   
  
“Really?” Justin deadpanned.   
  
“I have his underwear?” I said as I reached into the back pocket of my jeans to retrieve Ryan’s underwear.   
  
Justin rolled his eyes then pushed himself off the door frame and walked down the path towards Ryan and me. When he reached us he removed Ryan from my support and helped him into his jeans and t-shirt that someone had brought out from where they had been left in the back garden. I’d asked if he wanted Ryan’s underwear too but Justin just muttered something about it being easier without. I tucked them back into my pocket, telling myself I’d give them back to him another time, maybe.   
  
“I shouldn’t have let him come to this thing without me,” Justin said as he escorted Ryan back to his car.   
  
“Where are you taking him?” I asked.   
  
“Home,” he said without turning around, “I know what happened, Tina told me everything. I think it’s best he gets some rest for now.”   
  
Ah shit. That’s probably not going to end well for Ryan come the morning. What could I do? Run and hide? Try to explain? Drag Ryan away from Justin and keep him locked up in my room forever? My heart was aching to do something, anything to help him, but everything I thought of only seemed to make the situation worse.   
  
On the way to his car, Justin told Tina he’d come back for Ryan’s car in the morning. Todd came and stood beside me to watch as Justin helped Ryan lie down in the backseat of his car. Just before he got in to take Ryan home he looked over at me; he had a strange expression I hadn’t seen on him before. Was that pity? His face quickly morphed into a scowl when he realised I was looking back at him.   
  
Once they were gone Todd turned and held out a piece of paper, “I know this is kind of forward and really not something I’d usually do, but I thought after the kiss and all you should have this. So, um, here’s my number, you maybe want to get coffee sometime?”

***

“You got his number?!” Gary hollered at me.  
  
“Yeah, I did,” I said. I tried to act calm and unbothered. I was failing epically.  
  
“Samuel Angelica Haversford, if you don’t arrange a date right this minute—”  
  
“You know my middle name isn’t Angelica right?”   
  
“Yes yes, I know, but Sam none of us can pronounce your middle name. So I had to pick another one for you,” Gary said.  
  
“And my first name is Sam, not Samuel.”  
  
“Have I taught you nothing about being dramatic Sam?” he said with a sigh, as he often did around me.  
  
“Wel—”  
  
“Seriously? Bitch that was rhetorical. Now shut the hell up and text him!”  
  
**Sam: Hey Todd it’s Sam** **  
****  
****Todd: Hi Sam! How’s the hangover?** **  
****  
****Sam: Dnt hv 1, G trained that out yrs ago. u?** **  
****  
****Todd: Oh I didn’t drink too much I’m good.** **  
****  
****Todd: Who’s G?**

**Sam: Gary** ****  
****  
**Todd: I should’ve guessed that.** ****  
****  
**Todd: Isn’t there some rule about waiting 3 days before contact?** **  
** ****

**Sam: Not with G there isnt** ****  
****  
**Sam: So** **  
** ****

**Sam: I was thinking** ****  
****  
**Sam: Do u want 2 go on a d8?** ****  
****  
**Todd: Yeah, I’d like that.** **  
** ****

**Sam: Gr8!** ****  
****  
**Sam: L8r 2day?** ****  
****  
**Todd: Yeah, okay.** ****  
****  
**Todd: How about that new coffee place by the uni at 2?** ****  
****  
**Sam: Sounds good :D** ****  
****  
**Todd: See you there xx**   
  
“So, where are you meeting?” Gary asked once I looked back up from my phone.

“That new coffee shop that’s just opened near the university.”  
  
“Isn’t that where Ryan wor—” Gary slammed his hand over Tiggy’s mouth before he could finish speaking.   
  
“What?” I said.   
  
“Nothing!” Gary said with an odd devilish smile on his face. “So, um, what time are you two meeting?”   
  
“Why?”   
  
“Oh, no reason, just making conversation like normal people do all the time.”   
  
“Oh, okay then. We’re meeting at two.”   
  
Gary looked down at his wrist to check his imaginary watch, then looked up and said, “Bitch you better get going, if you turn up wearing that I will disinherit you.”   
  
“We’re not even—? Whatever, see you tomorrow for Drag Race,” I said.   
  
“Yes, definitely. You will for sure not be seeing us before then,” Gary smiled up at me, he still hadn’t removed his hand from over Tiggy’s mouth. My head was swimming after talking to Gary, but I felt better after I got it all out. I was still unsure on pretty much everything, but that would get better with time.

***

Todd had texted me when I was getting ready and said he might run slightly late, so I said I’d wait for him outside. Which I’d been doing for the past hour. Admittedly, I’d arrived about an hour early, so waiting for so long was probably more my fault than it was Todd’s, but oh well. Once Todd arrived, just after two, we hugged and he asked if I’d been waiting long. I said no; I didn’t want to worry him or make him think I was crazy, which I was, but he’d figure that out in his own time.  
  
I’d ended up wearing a pair of tan jeans, a white shirt, and blue suspenders; Gary said they were in at the moment, and I enjoyed wearing them. I also had a snazzy pair of shoes on that Gary found, they had two buckles on the outside edge of each shoe instead of laces; they were awesome.   
  
As we walked into the coffee shop, I noticed two ‘women’ sitting at a table in the corner. They wore large hats that obscured their faces, but I had a good idea which pair had followed me to the coffee shop. Why they wanted to watch my date with Todd, I did not understand.   
  
Todd pointed at one of the baristas behind the counter. “Isn’t that Ryan?”   
  
I definitely did not jump behind a large potted plant.   
  
“Sam?” Todd leant down and whispered, “You okay?”   
  
“Absolutely fine. I thought I saw a large flying octopus, so I hid, but it was just a bunch of falling leaves. I’m okay.”   
  
He gave me a puzzled smile, then said, “Why don’t you sit down, I’ll get us our drinks.”   
  
“Okay, I’ll be by the window. Mocha please?”   
  
“Sure.”   
  
I made my way over to a window seat as far from Ryan as I could get. I wasn’t avoiding him, it’d just be easier to concentrate on Todd that way. I looked over to watch Todd wait as Ryan finished making our drinks, I definitely wasn’t staring at Ryan in his apron and tight black shirt.   
  
Once the drinks had been made Todd turned and looked around. He made his way over when he saw where I was sitting.   
  
“Here you go.” He handed my mocha and sat down opposite me.   
  
I smiled at him. “Thanks.”   
  
“Why the hell is this salty?” Todd grimaced and swallowed after taking a rather large sip of his latte.   
  
“Maybe Ryan made a mistake when he made it? I’ll go ask for another one,” I said.   
  
I stood, picked up Todd’s cup, and walked over to where Ryan was behind the counter.   
  
When I got there I said, “Ryan, I think you added salt to my date’s latte.”   
  
“Oh, sorry Sam. No idea how that happened,” Ryan said with a smile. “I’ll make that for you again.”   
  
“No salt this time,” I said as Ryan took the cup from my hand and went about making the second one.   
  
Once he was done, and I’d checked there was no salt this time, I made my way back over to our table. Todd smiled at me when I handed him his latte then took a sip; a much more pleasant expression on his face this time.   
  
The rest of the date went pretty much as most dates do, we sat and talked about everything and nothing. He told me about how his father was in the hotel business and was trying to get Todd interested in taking over one day. I told him about my parents and how they met volunteering in Africa; my dad helping to build new homes and mum helping farmers become safer and more efficient at producing crops. It was going pretty well until I noticed Ryan walking in our direction.   
  
I watched over Todd’s shoulder as he approached. Just when I thought he was about to come right up to us he went over to the table next to where we sat and began cleaning it.   
  
I looked back at Todd and said, “You know what, let’s go sit away from the window, I think I might be allergic to this glass.” I said to Todd.   
  
“Okay?” he said.   
  
He was probably confused because no one’s allergic to glass, but it was the only excuse I could think of to move away from Ryan.   
  
We moved to a table against the opposite wall with our drinks and continued chatting about what we were doing our degrees in. We moved outside when Ryan followed us to clean the table behind Todd. Then back inside when he interrupted our conversation about bees to clean the table we were sitting at. We moved around the cafe a few more times as Ryan just so happen to need to do something near us before we decided it was probably time to leave. I had an essay due the next morning about non-Euclidean geometry I hadn’t yet started, so it was probably for the best.   
  
As we walked out the door Todd said, “This was fun Sam, we should see each other again sometime.”   
  
“Yeah, we should,” I smiled, “Sorry about Ryan, he was being weird I don’t know what’s got into him today.”   
  
“He was being weird?,” Todd said with a quizzical expression.   
  
“Yeah? He spent the whole time following us around. That’s why I kept moving seats.”

“Oh, I hadn’t even noticed.”  
  
We stood there in silence for a minute longer until I said I should get home to start my essay. We hugged and he wished me luck on my essay before we parted ways and I headed home with a grin plastered across my face. As long as we were somewhere Ryan wasn’t the next date would be good.

***

The next few weeks with Todd were fun. We hadn’t really been on an official date since the coffee shop; we still met for lunch after morning lectures, or he’d come to the club with me and Gary, or he’d come over and we’d watch stuff on Netflix together. Maybe that was what people call ‘casual dating’? I’d have to ask Gary, he’d know. I still wasn’t over Ryan, feelings like that don’t just disappear, but maybe if I kept seeing Todd I would be alright.


End file.
